Safe in Memphis: Mobilizing a neighborhood

Members and volunteers with the LeMoyne-Owen College Partnership building an access ramp for an elderly woman and her paralyzed son on Neptune Street in South Memphis. (Photo courtesy of Cheryl Golden)

In her day, Lorene Jones was a one-woman neighborhood association in South Memphis near LeMoyne-Owen College.

Jones, mother of two, was founder and president of South Memphis Citizens United for Action. When she wasn't hounding inspectors, police officers and other government officials to pay attention to the rapidly changing and declining neighborhood around her, she was organizing her voting-age neighbors to do the same.

Those days are behind her now. Jones, who used to put on a pair of garden gloves every morning and walk around her neighborhood with a plastic garbage bag picking up litter, is in her 80s.

"This was a beautiful neighborhood when I moved here," said Jones, who still lives in the house she bought on Mississippi near Walker in 1965, a house that also served as Lorene's Beauty Shop for more than 30 years.

"I just wanted it to stay that way. But I don't feel like doing it anymore. I'm too old. I just had to give up. It's disheartening."

Jones may be tired, but she has inspired a new generation of neighborhood and community activists who have organized the LeMoyne-Owen College Community Partnership.

The fourth Friday of every month, residents and neighborhood groups meet with city and county officials, local businesses and leaders of community organizations. They discuss crime, blight, litter, health and housing codes, and other problems — an abandoned car here, a vacant lot that has become a dump, a corner or park that has become a gang hangout.

Residents know the problems. The partnership connects them with agencies and organizations that can address them.

"Crime, poverty, blight, those are big problems and most of us don't know what to do about them," said Dr. Cheryl Golden, vice president and chief academic officer at LeMoyne-Owen College. "Now there are people in the room who know how to address these things. There's a shared sense of responsibility."

The LeMoyne-Owen Partnership, which includes college staff and students and other volunteers, organizes neighborhood cleanups and other projects.

Not long ago, Clean Memphis and Home Depot provided volunteers and materials to build an access ramp for an elderly woman and her paralyzed son on Neptune Street.

"Some community issues can only be uncovered at the grass-roots level," said Janet Boscarino, Clean Memphis executive director. "The partnership has created a space for relationships to form and for voices to be heard."

The LeMoyne-Owen Partnership is one of 10 across the community. Others are in Frayser, Raleigh, Northaven, Whitehaven, Klondike, Uptown, South Memphis, Hollywood-Chelsea and Highland Heights.

"This is very grass roots in a way that works," said Shelby County Mayor Mark Luttrell, who started the program when he was county sheriff. "It draws people who are committed to their communities, who want to watch out for each other."

Jones, who is being honored Saturday by the Women's Foundation for a Greater Memphis, says she's glad to see others pitching in to improve the neighborhood.

"My daughters live in Collierville. They want me to move," Jones said Tuesday. "But this is my home. I'm going to be here as long as I can do for myself. This could be a nice place again, if people pull together."